A video of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee praying at a dargah in Nandigram has surfaced with claims that she offered prayers in secret to avoid communal backlash. BOOM however found that the event was widely reported in the media and also live streamed from official handles.
The video shows Banerjee with folded hands as a person offers prayer at the dargah with Allah O Ameen chants heard in the background. The person praying, can further be heard asking in Bangla, for Banerjee's win in the upcoming assembly elections. The video also shows several other party members present with Banerjee and offering their prayers.
The video is being shared with a narrative that states Banerjee has cheated Hindus by allegedly appeasing Muslims.
Click here for an archive of the video.
Users on social media are falsely claiming that the video is leaked footage and was shot by a hidden camera and is being shared with the caption, "Mamata didi.. praying with Muslims in the dark of late night in Nandigram yesterday! But you are cheating Hindu brothers in the daytime
(This video is caught in a hidden camera which is hiding this video on social media, ....make it viral)". Click here for an archive of another post.
The video is also viral on Twitter with a similar narrative that questions Banerjee's intentions of 'praying in the dark'.
Click here and here for archives of the tweets.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search in Bangla on Facebook and found a Live video on Mamata Banerjee's verified Facebook page with visuals matching the viral video.
According to the caption in Bangla, Banerjee visited the dargah on March 9 .
News agency, ANI also tweeted about Banjeree visit to the dargah.
This shows that the event was covered by the media and was not a secret one, as claimed in viral posts.
In addition, Bengali language channels and English media outlets also reported about the visit. Anand Bazaar Patrika (ABP News) carried a photo feature showing, Banerjee visiting a temple and then a dargah in Nandigram and also interacting with the local residents before filing her nomination for the assembly polls. Banerjee was at Nandigram from March 9 onwards.
Further we ran a Google search for 'Mamata Banerjee at Mazar' and found that several leading news outlets including Aaj Tak and Times Now having published reports about the event, in contrary to the claims that it was a leaked footage.
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